For the past few months, we have been familiarising ourselves with the major characters of the Ramayan and the Ramcharitmanas. Now, from this issue on, we will be delving into the Ramkatha and look for our roots that lie embedded in it]
Think of the scenario. Prince Bharat has travelled to the thick jungle of Chitrakoot along with his entire royal family and all the paraphernalia of the state. He implores his elder brother Ram to return to Ayodhya and ascend to the throne which has fallen vacant on their father’s demise. Prince Ram turns down Bharat’s request. Other elders and sages also try vainly to persuade Ram to reconsider his decision. When all the arguments fail, Muni Vashisht, the royal priest, begins to recall before Ram his genealogy to assert that in the House of Raghus, it has always been the eldest son who succeeded his father. Vashisht too fails to convince Ram, but his monologue (see Balmiki Ramayan, Ayodhya Kand, Canto 110) gives us an idea of how the Adi-kavi Balmiki interpreted the legend of Creation. And here it goes –
Raja Ram’s forebears
Sarva salilmevaaseet Prithvi tatra nirmita/
Tataa sambhavd Brahma svayambhoordaivtai saha//
In the beginning of Creation everything was formed and consisted of water. In that water itself the Earth was built. Thereafter appeared, along with gods, the self-existent Brahma.
– Ibid, Canto 110(iii)
“It was Lord Brahma’s Vishnu form that appeared as the ‘Varah’ (that is, a boar) avatar. The Varah Avatar – He of a boar’s head and a human body – lifted the Earth out of the all-pervading waters. Then the Lord created the whole world through His self-born sons.” (Maharishi Balmiki’s intent matches with the Vedic tale, yet he seems to have deviated from its details. In its original legend, the demon Hiranyakashipu stole the Earth (‘Bhumi’ in Sanskrit) and took it to the underworld. Lord Varah, the third of Lord Vishnu’s avatars) killed the demon and restored Bhumi to its proper place.)
“From the Supreme Brahma manifested the everlasting, eternal and immortal Brahma. From Him was born Marich and Marich’s son was Kashyap. Kashyap begot Vivasvan. Vivasvan’s son was the manifest Vaivasvat Manu and Manu’s son was Ikshvaku. Ikshvaku was the first raja of Ayodhya….”
In this manner Muni Vashisht recounts some thirty-nine of Ram’s ancestors, including the more famous ones like Raghu, Prithu, Trishanku, Bharat, Sagar and Bhagirath, to press home his point that it was only the eldest son of the deceased ruler who sat on the throne.
Creation of the World
Balmiki reverts to the legend of Creation in Canto 14 of the Aranya Kand. Here the narrator is Jatayu. Ram, Lakshman and Sita, lately hosted by Maharishi Agastya, are on their way to Panchvati when they run into this aged but still formidable vulture. He volunteers to protect them from rakshasas who hold sway in this place. (He would eventually sacrifice his life fighting Ravan in his vain attempt to prevent Sita’s abduction.) Ram asks him to identify himself. Jatayu says that he is a friend of Dashrath’s and then begins to give a rather lengthy account of his ancestry, right from the creation of the universe.
Jatayu tells Ram that there have been, in succession, sixteen ‘Prajapatis’ – lords of creatures, presiding over procreation…(cf M.Monier Williams ‘A Sanskrit English Dictionary’, P.658) – from the Prajapati Kardam to the Prajapati Kashyap. Daksh was the fourteenth of these divinities. He was father to sixty celebrated daughters.
Kashyap married eight of Dakshya’s daughters, namely Aditi, Diti, Danu, Kalka, Tamra, Krodhvasha, Manu and Anala. The Prajapati told his wives that they would give birth to sons who would be as energetic as himself in nurturing people. Four of his wives – Aditi, Diti, Danu and Kalka -paid serious attention to his words and were amply rewarded. The other four had minds of their own.
To Aditi were born 33 gods – 12 Adityas, 8 Vasus, 11 Rudras and 2 Ashwini Kumars. Diti gave birth to sons who are collectively known as ‘Daityas’. The whole of earth, including its forests and oceans, was under their control. Danu was mother to Ashvagriv and to Kalka were born two sons, Narak and Kalak.
The other four of Kashyap wives became the progenitors of all sorts of the Lord’s creatures. Tamra had had five world-renowned daughters of the names Kronchi, Bhasi, Shyeni, Dhritrashtari and Shuki. Kronchi was the prime-mother to owls; Bhasi gave to the world the bird ‘bhas’ – a bird of prey; Shyeni mothered eagles and vultures; and Dhritrashtari gave birth to all kinds of geese and the whistling teal (a kind of duck). Shyeni was also the mother of the ‘chakravak’ bird ( known as the ‘Brahmini duck’). Tamra’s youngest daughter, Shuki, had one daughter by the name of Nata. To Nata was born Vinta who would be grandmother to Jatayu and his older brother, Sampati. Likewise, Krodhvasha and Anala were the matriarchs of bears, deer and yak; lions, monkeys and lemurs; tigers and elephants; cows and horses, and snakes and serpents. Kashyap’s last named wife, Anala, also gave birth to the fruit-bearing trees.
And the first humans were born of Manu (rather confusing because of her more famous namesake, Prajapati Manu, the Sanatani law-giver.)
If, perchance, reading Bamiki’s account of Creation should distort your face into a smirk, it would be of advantage to remember that the sage was not a historian. And unlike Charles Darwin, he did not sit down to write a scientific treatise such as ‘The Origin of Species’. Balmiki was a poet first and last and he has left us an epic, which also comes out as the first ever of its kind.
Significantly, this legend of Creation speaks volumes about the mindset of our venerable ancestors. They saw kinship even with the carrion-eating vultures and deadly snakes and serpents; not to say with birds and trees too! ‘Vasudhaiv kutumbakam’ has not been just a sweet-sounding formula to score brownie points.
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